# Interaction in a beer store **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** beer, wine\ **Created:** [October 6, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626 "2026-10-06T18:14:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/21 "2026-10-07T01:17:48Z")
Couldn’t you just scan the UPC codes for the six cans? ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/22 "2026-10-07T01:30:19Z")
No. Nowadays, you could, but back then (early 1990s), beer bottles and cans did not bear UPC codes. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/23 "2026-10-07T02:23:02Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Good decision. If I went into a place to buy a cigar and beer (and bought both), but the owner was pushing other wine or other goods at me while selling me those, I wouldn’t feel comfortable either. Have you any idea why he was pushing wine so much? I just assume he had made a commitment to selling wine, and since he was selling it at the legal retail minimum (so he said, anyway) he needed to sell volume to get a return on his investment. The odd thing to me was that, in a mere 3 visits, spaced out months apart, he not only remembered my face upon return visits but also that I hadn’t bought wine previously, and got increasingly agitated at me about it. A crank with a photographic memory, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/24 "2026-10-07T03:52:06Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I just assume he had made a commitment to selling wine, and since he was selling it at the legal retail minimum (so he said, anyway) he needed to sell volume to get a return on his investment. Makes sense. If he bought wholesale, and added a small markup to hit the retail minimum price, then he needs to make up for it with volume sales. But there’s a better way to do that than he displayed. “Hey, what’s for dinner tonight? Bet I’ve got a wine that will pair perfectly with it,” would be a lot better than the approach he used, in my opinion. And if you decline, then he should have said something like, “No problem. But when you want some wine, remember, I’ve got what you want.” ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/25 "2026-10-07T12:16:25Z")
I seem to have an unlucky history with beer store merchants. Then there was the guy who ran the corner store at the end of my street for years-- that was my go-to stop when I wanted to pick up adult beverages. The guy who owned the place was friendly, but it soon became clear he was a hardcore Republican. He used to make little righty comments in the course of small talk, and at one point he put up a big display of a book for sale about George W. Bush (the only book he ever sold). He once said something disparaging about Obama, and I defended the job he was doing. The guy shrugged, as if to say ‘to each their own’ and that was it. This was in those more civil days of yore pre-2016 when people could disagree politically, but still do business together and be generally genial with each other. I disagreed with his political beliefs, but he seemed a normal, likeable enough guy. But then one day-- by now it was trump’s first term-- I go into the store and bring my intended purchase to the counter, where I see he is poring over some book with another guy. As I get up to the counter I see it’s the Bible, and he and his friend who stopped in were doing an impromptu bible study. When the store owner sees me, he excitedly holds up the Bible, pointing to the name of an ancient place in the Book of Revelation, and says, “see this? It’s the biblical name of [some modern country I forget the name of, that the trump admin was currently in some sort of conflict with, short of military hostilities]. What’s happening now is exactly what was predicted in The Book of Revelation! The truth is all in here!! If you want to know what’s going to happen next, read your bible!!” I was like “ohh-kay”…finished my transaction, and never went back there again. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/26 "2026-10-07T14:47:51Z")
Not to hijack, but I’ve heard and been puzzled by a few assholes of my acquaintance who have opined that it’s ok to steal from “big corporations who won’t miss it”, as if that somehow negates the idea that _ **you’re stealing stuff** _. Like somehow it’s the impact that’s important, not the actual act of thievery in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderMagnolia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@LavenderMagnolia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderMagnolia)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/27 "2026-10-07T14:53:14Z")
I agree. An employee could be reprimanded or fired for not noticing the theft and alerting a manager/LP. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/28 "2026-10-07T16:28:50Z")
Owning a small retail store is often code for “I _can’t_ play well with others; I _need_ to be King of my fief, no matter how humble.” Business is inherently a cooperative activity between you, your vendors, and your customers. If cooperation isn’t really in your repertoire, you’ll scrap with everyone. Good bet @Spoon’s jerky discount wine merchant falls into that category. Note that nothing in that motivation says the owner has business aptitude or skills. In fact often the opposite. Dumb decisions are more the rule than the exception. I suspect those umpteen cases of wine may have been just sitting there, burning a hole in his working capital since he doesn’t own the kind of store in the kind of location that generates that kind of traffic. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/29 "2026-10-07T16:31:53Z")
Yeah, this. It isn’t stealing if it’s taken from a big entity. “After all, they all steal lots more from us every day.” That or something substantially equivalent is the excuse they use to justify it to themselves. Same for folks that under-ring stuff at the self-checkout. “You’re making me do work for you, so I’m entitled to extract a wage from you by entering the UPC for potatoes while buying steak.” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/30 "2026-10-07T20:44:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Note that nothing in that motivation says the owner has business aptitude or skills. Yeah, I’m amazed at how many people just don’t _get_ that when you boil it ALL down, business strategy comes down to one of two things- if you are _the_ cheapest, or how you differentiate yourself from everyone else selling similar stuff. That’s it. There really aren’t any other ways to do business. If you’ve got a wine shop, you need to figure out how to set your shop apart from the Total Wines and all the other stores in your town. That may be to somehow be cheaper. That may be to sell special wines the others can’t get, or it may be to have special knowledge and customer service. But you’ve got to have _something_. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/31 "2026-10-07T21:22:12Z")
Badgering skills count as something. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2026, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626/32 "2026-10-08T13:12:07Z")
I remembered another story of a beer interaction that resulted in suspicion and borderline hostility, though this wasn’t in a beer store, but in the sky. I was on a domestic flight and the attendant asked me if I wanted anything to drink. I asked what kind of beers they had, and she showed me what was in the cart-- boring choices like Bud or Miller Lite, and…one lone Tecate (the plane I was on also did flights to Mexico, so the Tecate was a leftover from one of those trips). I bought the Tecate. As I’m enjoying my Mexican beer, another flight attendant walking by saw me drinking it and assumed I had brought it on board myself. She leaned toward me and quietly said "you’re not supposed to bring your own drinks on board. At least keep it discreet so the other passengers don’t see it (this was late 90s, when smuggling your own liquids on board might result in a finger-wagging, not a sky marshall takedown). I told her I bought it from the other attendant, and she rolled her eyes and sarcastically said “yeah, _ **sure** _ you did”. I said, “no, really”. She marched up the aisle to where the other attendant was still serving far up toward the front. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I saw her talking animatedly and point to me; the attendant I bought the Tecate from nodded her head ‘yes’, and the accusing attendant sort of shook her head, as if to say “I still don’t buy it”. A fun little postscript to the story-- the attendant that called me out and pretty much called me a liar was a dead ringer for Gwyneth Paltrow. So much so, I wondered if she got herself a temporary flight attendant job to train for a role. And she did indeed play a flight attendant in a 2003 movie called _View from the Top_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interaction-in-a-beer-store/1033626.md?page=1)